One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Happy Horror-Days: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

Santa
Claus begins his yearly Christmas Eve journey before too long, and so it seems like
an ideal time to remember a modern holiday-themed horror movie that I’ve come
to consider a new classic: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
(2010).

Like
the best holiday-themed horror films, Rare Exports makes the most out of
its premise by juxtaposing the “good tidings” and happy vibes of the holiday
season with a far more cynical and sinister reality.

In
this case, the horror in the scenario arises from the presence of an ancient Santa Claus demon, but also the fact that his arrival has caused
economic blues for the film’s central family. That family, already dealing with
grief, contends with a financial setback that could adversely impact it for a
year.

This economic element of the narrative is crucial to the film’s success, and an acknowledgement of the fact
that Christmas holiday has become tied, perhaps irrevocably, to commerce and capitalism.

Without enough money to spend, is a Merry Christmas even possible in this day and age?

Rare Exports also functions
as a quirky coming of age tale, at least of sorts. The film’s young hero, Pietari, can
no longer close his eyes to the reality of his life (or his father’s profession
as a butcher).

Similarly, Pietari forcibly has his young eyes opened to the true nature of Santa
Claus as a monster that dispenses not gifts, but punishment for naughty
children. Therefore, the Christmas holiday depicted in this Finnish film from Jalmari Helander is not one in which Pietari gets to remain a kid, but one in which he earns his father’s respect as an adult.

Although
all of this analysis undoubtedly makes Rare Exports sound like a weighty polemic, the
film is light on its feet, and extremely funny, too. The film’s horror is real,
but leavened by the comedic elements.

“The Coca-Cola Santa is just a hoax.”

A
mining company working in the Korvotunturi Mountains in Finland discovers evidence
of something buried deep within one rocky outcropping. Dynamite is utilized to
blow up the mountain, but the explosion releases an ancient horror…the real
Santa Claus.

In
this case, Santa Claus is a giant horned demon, tended to by an army of
mindless elves, really filthy, naked old men with long beards. These are Santa's Helpers.

A
boy, Pietari (Onni Tommila) who lives with his father, Rauno (Jorma Tommila)
suspects the truth; that a monster has been unloosed in town. Pietari is unable to
convince his father of this fact, however, until after discovering that a herd of valuable
reindeer have been massacred…and fed upon.

When one of “Santa’s Helpers” is captured, Rauno realizes that his son’s
story is true, and that a dark force has infiltrated the town.

But
it may be too late to stop Santa. All the children of the town -- save for
Pietari --- have disappeared and been replaced with creepy straw dolls.

Now, Pietari and Rauno must save the
children, destroy Santa, and stop the onslaught of Santa’s helpers.

“Close
your eyes, son. Daddy’s working.”

One
delightful aspect of Rare Exports is that it plays like a
seasonal (and satirical) version of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).
Specifically, something ancient and awful is awakened from a long slumber
beneath the Earth’s surface, only to go on a reign of terror. In both situations, the monster emerges (or nearly emerges) from a block of ice.

If The
Thing shattered all of our happy illusions about friendly aliens in the
summer of E.T. (1982), Rare Exports works to similar ends
regarding Santa Claus, drawing on the character’s ancient origins as a figure
of menace and mischief.

As
Pietari learns from his research (a book called The Truth about Santa Claus),
The Coca-Cola Santa is a figure of rational, capitalist modernity, a figure
designed to sell products.

The
truth, according to the film, however, is that Santa is something much more
sinister; something that possesses a hatred for children and takes glee not in rewarding
them, but in hurting them.

All
the children in the town are abducted by Santa’s minions, which means that all have been classified as “naughty.” Pietari realizes that he
too is vulnerable, or naughty (because of his actions cutting open a fence near
the mountain). By recognizing his own
bad behavior, Pietari also realizes a human truth.

There isn’t one of us who isn’t naughty
occasionally, at least by Santa’s standards.

And
that means Santa’s “nice” and “naughty” list is a swindle. There is no nice
list.

Again, this is a crucial piece of Pietari’s coming of age; his viewing of
the world in an adult, or mature way, separated from the fantasy and simple-mindedness of
fairy tales.

Pietari’s
distinctly un-romantic discovery of the truth is mirrored by the film’s
unromantic approach to traditional Christmas symbolism.

A beautiful field of snow
is marred by the carcasses of 433 massacred reindeer, for example. When the dead animals are first seen, one of Rauno’s co-workers
notes, cynically “Merry Christmas.”

He
is upset, however, not because the beautiful animals – which in mythology pull Santa’s
sleigh -- are dead. No, he is upset because
“85,000 dollars” of merchandise have “rotted away.” The butcher and his co-workers were going to
sell reindeer meat for the holidays. Now their livelihood is threatened.

Pietari,
who has closed his eyes to what his father does -- working as a butcher -- opens his
eyes to everything in the film. He opens his eyes to economic realities, and
the reality of Santa Claus as a monster.
He sees that the “whole Christmas
thing” is “just a bluff” to
enforce good behavior on the part of children. He takes responsibility for himself, for his father, and for ending the threat posed by Santa Claus.

Accordingly,
on Christmas day, Pietari grows up.

He fights to save his fellow children, blow
Santa Claus to kingdom come, and harness the minions of the demons as an
economic boon to his family. These minions are trained to be “Coca Cola” Santas
and shipped, world-wide, to serve happy children.

It is no coincidence that the barn holding
the giant demon, Santa, is marked in the same way that Pietari’s holiday advent
calendar is. But on the final day of the holiday -- on Christmas Day -- Pietari does
not open presents like a child would. Rather his gift is his ability to perceive the “truth”
of the world.

He has opened not a sickly-sweet, sentimental token of childhood. He has opened up the responsibilities of maturity.

Rare
Exports is a delightful film, with some moments of extreme violence. For the most part, however, the horror is merely suggested through its aftermath. The field of dead reindeer is one example, and the wolf pit trap (which
snares a minion) is another.

Although we
never see Santa in action since he is locked in a block of ice, the early
sections of the film -- which recount the ancient legends -- do a terrific job of
instilling fear not only in Pietari, but in the audience too.

A
great Christmas horror film like Krampus (2015), Gremlins
(1984) or Rare Exports (2010) -- succeeds because it punches holes
through the mythology of the Christmas season, and sees another truth instead,
about the nature of the holiday in the modern era.

Rare Exports is so much
fun, so sharp in its observations and humor about this most beloved of holidays that it is anything but the
proverbial lump of coal in the stocking.

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

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